Watch: Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette cover Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Mandinka’
They made the tribute at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival
The Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette paid tribute to Sinéad O’Connor at the weekend with a live cover of ‘Mandinka’.
The Foos were closing the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan when frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd: “Tonight we’re gonna do something that we’ve never done before with someone that we love very much.
“We want an old friend to come up and sing with us tonight for a very special reason.”
Morissette, who was also playing the festival, joined the band onstage and paid tribute to O’Connor, who was revealed to have passed away last week aged 56.
Grohl said: “We’re singing this song for a reason tonight,” before Morissette added: “For a beautiful woman with high intelligence and deep empathy, way ahead of her time, who is no longer with us. This is for her.”
Watch: Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette play ‘Mandinka’
Morissette sang on the cover with the Foos playing beneath a big screen that displayed a huge picture of O’Connor as they finished.
‘Mandinka’ was the Irish singer’s second single from her 1987 debut album ‘The Lion and the Cobra’ and her first big hit.
Tori Amos covered O’Connor’s ‘Three Babies’ and the trad folk song ‘I Am Stretched On Your Grave’, which O’Connor had also recorded a version of, at a show in San Francisco last week.
Watch: Tori Amos live tribute to Sinead O’Connor
Many artists have also paid tribute online – including Alanis Morissette, who wrote: “Sinead was a profound inspiration to many. And to me.
“Her passion, poetry, and unapologetic expression raised the bar on artistry and female empowerment. Her questioning of societal norms deeply influenced culture’s appreciation of female complexity.
“Her ability to vulnerably dwell on the small part of the bell-shaped curve was thought provoking, stirring and inspiring. I’m feeling empathy for Ireland, for the world, and for all of us who are saddened by this news.”